One of the things I am most passionate about is Environmental Justice. Among the reasons I decided to name my company Green Ankh Works, was the need to participate meaningfully in the promotion of Indigenous Knowledge Systems and to synergize the work of formal sciences with the time tested natural wisdom of Afrika.

There is so much that the rest of the world can learn from the apparently simple yet environmentally sustainable ways of Afrikan culture. But Afrika is caught up in the binary whirlwinds of striving to maintain both its unique identities while also forging ahead into modern innovations, infrastructural developments and striving to maintain peaceful, democratic and healthy communities.

Afrikans can make significant contributions in the gradual push towards environmentally friendly social changes. We have been able to live a life of harmony with Nature before and our cultural institutions, although having been significantly eroded and compromised by colonial conquest with its subsequent Land dispossession, have always been in synergy with Cosmic Order. Essentially, we are neither a wasteful people nor ignorant of Natures’ impact on our daily lives.

One of the Lifestyle magazines I have just recently bought, called The Afropolitan, has a feature titled, Living The Green Lifestyle. In this issue Palesa Madumo writes:

“Green living is no longer associated with privileged First World-problem snobbery, as it was a decade ago in South Africa. With the country’s water, electricity and food restrictions, more and more of us are becoming aware of our impact on the environment and are seriously practicing sustainable, energy efficient living. Being environmentally friendly – or ‘going green’ – simply means that you live with an awareness of the environment and its well-being.” ( p.58, http://www.afropolitan.co.za / 2017 / Edition 49 )

These days, many organizations are talking about Green Living and the environmental awareness decisions that go with it. Many people have become more conscious of conservation, energy saving and conducting their lives in an environmentally friendly way; this includes engaging in community based initiatives towards recycling, regular use of public transportation and car-sharing (car-pooling) to name but a few.

There is a gradual adjustment towards Greener lifestyles and this can only be commended and promoted as it is a real sign of the maturity of the human race. We have to become more responsible guardians and stewards of the finite resources of this beautifully green place we call home.

Our shift towards Greener lifestyles should not be guided by fear or by the shock and awe therapy that comes with the whole business of Climate Change, we neither need to be excessively skeptical nor fanatically ultra-green. What we all can do is ensure that wanton industrialization that disregards Nature and the future of our grandchildren is kept in check. What that requires is a revolution in consciousness whereby we give more value to Beings rather than to Things. This means that even the very foundations of present day economic theories needs to be radically redefined or rejected all together for a process of ethical and logical ecological justice. I say that a move towards ecological justice is a process because the nature of human beings has tended towards deleterious competition and greedy wealth accumulation instead of a more positive humanistic competition which thrives on collaboration rather than manipulation.

It is abundantly clear that we all need to make quality decisions to change the way we eat, work, build, farm and especially the way we trade. But old habits die hard and many environmentalists, conservationists and activists have written and spoken repeatedly about the necessity of such societal transformation, yet in keeping with the nature of the way capitalist society is constructed, we keep relapsing to the status quo and we are return to the kind of lifestyle choices that jeopardize the very survival of the human and animal species. Companies such as Green Ankh Works (PTY)LTD are here to ensure that we do not forget to remember the priorities. By sharing stories, and sustainable ideas with the whole community and across generations, we aim to assist society along the path towards what we call Greenovation or innovations that a founded on Green principles.